A letter addressed to President Rody Duterte which recommends the creation of Task Force Bigas to literally “count every rice grain” kept in both private and government warehouses in the country to establish a factual rice stock inventory was officially transmitted by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries today through the Office of the Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
Task Force Bigas is also expected to pre-empt any attempt by the rice cartel to create an artificial rice shortage to pressure the President to soften his stand on disallowing rice importation during peak harvest season to protect farmers from price manipulation.
On April 5, in Talavera, Nueva Ecija, President Duterte announced a new agriculture policy of disallowing rice importation during peak harvest season.
The new policy declared by the President is aimed at protecting Filipino rice farmers from price manipulation.
Historically, paddy rice buying prices would fall from a high of P18 per kilo during off harvest season to only about P10 to P12 per kilo during peak harvest, a result of the in-shipment of imported rice.
Rice trading in the Philippines has largely been controlled by big businessmen who own rice mills and warehouses. These are also the same businessmen who, using farmers’ cooperatives as dummies, take advantage of the country’s rice importation program by cornering import permits and timing the arrival of the imports during peak harvest season.
The President’s announcement of the No-Importation-on-Harvest-Season Policy was welcomed by rice farmers all over the country but was resented by the rice cartel who immediately launched an orchestrated Public Relations campaign against the policy, including floating the story that the move could result in a rice shortage in the country.
As of yesterday, however, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Economic Analyst Dr. Samarendu Mohanty said that the Philippines has an inventory of about 5-million metric tons of rice and a buffer stock supply good for 46 days.
Dr. Mohanty also said that the export price of rice in the world market today has fallen to very economically affordable prices partly because of the announcement by President Duterte that the Philippines will not import rice during the harvest season and also because harvest in the rice producing countries has been good.
Task Force Bigas which I recommended to be created by a Memorandum Order to be issued by President Duterte is being proposed to be chaired by Executive Secretary Medialdea as chairman with the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) as vice chairman and the Cabinet Secretary and other agency heads as members.
It is aimed at establishing a baseline information on the actual rice stock situation in the country to contribute to a better planning process for the rice industry.
When approved, the Task Force will conduct a nation-wide inventory of all rice stocks, including those which entered the country through the backdoor by a well-organised rice smuggling syndicate which receives the rice from other countries in the waters off Malaysia and transferred to small boats which bring the stocks to Zamboanga City and other small ports in the Peninsula.
Grains warehouses are proposed to be opened and inspected in the process.
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